Whitefish Point In a few short days tiny Piping Plover chicks will be emerging from their protective shells to venture the shore of Whitefish Point. Vie and Little Bill Bob have kept true to their duty, making my job easy as I watch them peacefully incubate. The chicks are due to hatch June 22. [...]
Whitefish Point I hope you weren’t waiting with bated breath, because the only news I have to report is that everything is normal at Whitefish Point. But normal is great, it’s what we hope for. Little Bill Bob and Vie have been faithfully incubating their clutch of four each day, ensuring that their young [...]
Whitefish Point I’m glad to report that nesting progress at Whitefish Point is running smoothly. Each day Little Bill Bob and his mate Vie take turns incubating their nest of four, switching shifts about every hour. When one does leave the nest to forage, it’s not unlikely to run into Hot Shot on the [...]
Whitefish Point Vie has laid her fourth egg, meaning incubation has begun! In around 26 days tiny Piping Plover chicks will be running around at the Point. In the meantime Vie and Little Bill Bob will be taking turns sitting on the eggs while the embryos develop inside. Hot Shot is still moseying around [...]
Whitefish Point PIPL X,B:-,O Male from Vermilion Point. Photo by Stephanie Owens PIPL Little Bill Bob performing a broken-wing display. Photo by Stephanie Owens Little Bill Bob and Vie had been taking the past week slow, and I don’t blame them. It must be hard work growing eggs and deciding [...]
Things are shaping up to be another successful Piping Plover breeding season at Whitefish Point. The plovers have been arriving at the Point since April 27, and our pair from last year have found each other again. Just a refresher, that pair is Of,bL:X,B/O/B (Male, aka Little Bill Bob) and X,V:Of,YY (Female, aka Violet [...]
Since my last blog post, seven Piping Plover chicks have officially fledged! This means that they survived their first 23 days and can now fly. This is excellent news and one of the better years for the number of chicks fledged. Unfortunately, four of the 11 chicks that hatched either went missing or were [...]
Since my last blog post, the fourth and final Piping Plover nest has hatched. Unfortunately, only one of the three eggs hatched. The two unhatched eggs were turned over to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation Team and determined to have not developed. Also, since my last blog post, 10 of the 11 chicks on [...]
A section of the shoreline will be closed through Aug. 5. People can still access the tip of the Point from the bayside shoreline. Before I talk about the recent Piping Plover activity, I want to give a quick update on the beach closures at Whitefish Point. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife [...]
Piping Plover Chick Over the weekend, we were fortunate to have two nests of Piping Plovers hatch at the Point! Nest 2 hatched first, and all four eggs hatched. Nest 1 hatched a couple of days later, and both eggs hatched as well. As of today, July 5, all six chicks are [...]
